Tragic, Yet Somehow Hilarious, SmartCar ™ Story o' the Day

Comox Valley News reports on the inevitable, yet tragic, hilarity that results from driving around a SmartCar outside the perimeter of a Six Flags bumper car ride.

Experts say we should prepare for aftershocks after the 6.4 magnitude earthquake that rocked Vancouver Island... The quake was originally thought to have measured 6.7 on the Richter Scale, but has since been downgraded by the US Geological Survey...

... "I was just walking outside the Walmart here in Powell River and a car flipped because of the earthquake," one caller told HQComoxValley.com, "Someone was driving and they hit a speed bump and when they did the car basically tipped."

The small Smart Car then rolled right over when it was hit by another car.

The mileage of the golf cart on wheels known as the "Smart fortwo" is a reported 33 city, 41 highway.

Yet President Obama has issued an edict that cars, on average, attain 54 miles-per-gallon in little more than a dozen years. The cost of downsizing cars to meet the authoritarian demands of central planners will be thousands of more fatalities on America's roads.

How can we be sure?

Because back in 2002, a study by the National Academy of Science found that auto downsizing due to CAFE standards cost 2,000 lives a year. In 1999, a comprehensive study commissioned by USA Today found that "7,700 people died for every one additional mpg attributable to CAFE regulation".

Requiring people to drive clown cars and golf carts -- rather than letting the free market dictate mileage, safety and vehicle form factors -- will end badly, as central planning by a small collection of "masterminds" always does.